[ Academia ] [ Litigation ] [ Regulatory & Policy ] [ Transactional ] as a Relevant Course outside SLS for those interested in Lifesciences: Innovations : Health care and biotech lawyers should be aware of the many ways their clients use and develop technology, whether in their system infrastructure or in the delivery of health care products and services. Students should select a course like this one that considers clinical and business models for adopting new technology, including the regulatory framework and criteria for reimbursements of their costs.

General course
Description:

This course examines health care businesses and how they use technology (primarily biotechnology, medical technology and information technology) to improve patient outcomes and manage costs. New technologies are commercialized by innovator companies (biotech and pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers, diagnostics developers, and health IT companies). They are adopted by providers (hospitals, physicians) in patient care and paid for by third-party payers (commercial and government). We will use case studies to examine the following:

For the innovators,

a) financing and managing new product development

b) clinical trial management and gaining regulatory approval,

c) marketing, communication and sales strategies (both physician and patient communication and sales) to drive product adoption and gain third party reimbursement.

d) Business models to drive innovation.

For the providers,

a) The clinical and business case for adopting a new technology

b) The organizational changes new technology may necessitate especially when it generates new patient safety risks.

For the payers,

a) the process and criteria they use to make reimbursement and coverage decisions and how these criteria affect innovators,

b) selective provider network design to manage the added costs of these new technologies,

and c) new it-intensive business models.

Through these case studies, the students will not only gain an in depth understanding of how new technologies get developed and commercialized in health care but how the whole health care value chain adapts to these new technologies. Interviews, panel discussions, and guest lecturers from prominent industry leaders will supplement the case discussions. Speakers and panelsts in previous years included senior executives from Genentech, Gilead, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Medtronic, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, United Health, DaVita, and Genomic Health; venture investors from Essex Woodland Health Ventures and Prospect Ventures; and heads of the health care/biotech practices at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs.

Course Style: A Substantive course teaches the law, theory, and policy in a particular area of law